See You In the Next Life
by actress4him
Summary: My imagining of the tragic tale of how Lea and Isa became Nobodies. Short story length, but will be posted in 3 parts. Rated T for violence (mostly implied) and intense situations.
1. Part 1

"Run for it!"

Whirling around, eighteen-year-old Lea barreled down the castle hallway back toward Isa, motioning wildly. "They found us, let's go!"

Isa groaned and began running as well. "Why did I let you talk me into this?"

"Come on, this is fun!" Lea puffed as they skidded around a corner. "Just like the old days!"

"I'm glad you're having fun," Isa replied sarcastically. They could hear the heavy footsteps of one of the castle guards behind them, but they seemed to be growing a bit fainter.

"I think we're losing him," said Lea. "Good ole Aeleus is getting slow these days," he laughed gleefully.

His laughter was cut short, however, when they rounded another corner and came face to face with another guard, Dilan. He was dressed in a long black coat, as Aeleus had been, and six giant lances hovered in the air around him.

"What the..." Lea blinked in surprise. This couldn't be the same man he remembered from their earlier days of sneaking into – and being thrown out of – the castle. Lea had never seen anyone with weapons like these before.

"You two brats have intruded here for the last time," Dilan growled.

"Um, yeah, we were...just leaving..." Isa stammered. He seemed just as taken aback as Lea was.

Without a word of warning, one of the lances came flying down the hall directly toward Isa's head. He leaped sideways to try and avoid the blow, but the tip of the lance still managed to slice right between his eyes. Isa cried out in pain and stumbled back against the wall, his hand to his face. Blood seeped out from between his fingers.

"Isa!" Lea yelled in horror. He tried to run to his friend, but a strong pair of hands grabbed his arms and pinned them behind his back. Struggling only caused his shoulders to be wrenched even further backwards until they felt like they would break out of their sockets.

"Xaldin, the Superior wants these two in one piece," the man behind Lea said, his voice condescending.

"And in one piece they will be, Lexaeus," Xaldin replied irritably, crossing to Isa and yanking him upright by his arm. "Let's go."

As they were herded along the long hallways, deeper and further down into the castle, Lea began berating himself inwardly. After all, sneaking into the castle "one more time" had been his stupid idea. When they were kids, it had been a prank that had always just gotten them thrown unceremoniously out the front doors. This time, it had started as a conversation about how no one had seen Ansem the Wise, the leader of Radiant Garden, in a very long time, and discussing the rumors about what might be going on inside the old castle. Then Lea had suggested that they check it out for themselves.

From what little he had seen, there was certainly something weird going on here. There had been no sign of Ansem so far, and the upper portions of the castle were dingy and dusty, like they were hardly even in use. The two men who held them now were the same...or were they? Not only had they called each other by different names, but suddenly at least one of them was wielding some kind of magic powers.

Craning his neck, Lea tried to catch a glimpse of Isa behind him, but was only shoved forward by his captor. He hoped his friend was alright. Where were these men taking them, anyway? Why hadn't they just kicked them out like usual? Who did they mean by "the Superior"? The questions were swirling through his mind as they began to descend another set of stairs into what looked to be a basement.

"Ah, you've brought our visitors!" called a man with an eye patch as they entered the room. He crossed to them with a crooked smirk, his one good eye glinting gold above a severely scarred cheek. "So nice of you to join us."

"Like we had much of a choice," Lea spat, sick of this madness. "What is going on here?" He glanced to his right and finally was able to see Isa again. His face was dripping with blood, but he was standing firmly on his own two feet, at least. Isa caught Lea looking at him and gave a nod, as if to reassure his friend that he was alright.

"Calm yourself," a cool voice answered. Two more men, dressed in black coats identical to the rest, were standing at a laboratory table nearby, poring over books. The shortest of them turned, peering through his silvery-blue hair. "The Superior will be here any moment."

"Who...?" Lea began, but he was interrupted by a sudden burst of dark energy a few feet in front of him. A figure materialized in the midst of the darkness, also wearing the long black coat, but this one had his face completely shrouded by the hood. Everyone came to attention when the man appeared, so Lea could only surmise that this must be the mysterious Superior.

"The intruders, as you ordered," Xaldin spoke up as the dark energy dissipated.

"Our volunteers," came a deep, commanding voice from the black void of the hood. "Well done, Number Three; Number Five."

"We didn't volunteer for anything," sneered Isa. The hooded man seemed to turn and look at him, though his features remained completely hidden, and he said nothing in reply. Lea glanced nervously at Isa. Something about this faceless man set him on edge, but Isa merely stared unflinchingly into the blackness, as if he was challenging him.

"Number Four," the Superior spoke again momentarily, turning his attention to the other side of the room. "What say you?"

The second man from the laboratory table walked over to join them. "Well," he began in a nasally voice, his blonde locks brushing the pages of his book, "This would be the perfect opportunity to test physical versus emotional, as we had discussed."

"Yes," the Superior replied. "Very good." He turned back to the teens, and raised a gloved hand to point at Isa. "Begin with this one," he ordered, then disappeared into another wave of dark energy as quickly as he had come.

Though he would never have admitted it, Lea was becoming more frightened by the minute. "What are you people doing?" he demanded, as Xaldin and Lexaeus began to wrestle their captives forward once more. "What did he mean by volunteers? What kind of test is he talking about?"

"I guess you'll find out, won't you?" Lexaeus answered flatly. They had moved out of the laboratory and down another hallway, and their surroundings were growing darker and colder. Down another short set of steps, they entered a large room that could not be mistaken for anything but a dungeon.

Lea tried to put up a fight as he was pushed into a cell, but was easily overpowered by the huge, burly man. Shoving him up against the back wall, Lexaeus clapped an iron shackle onto each of Lea's wrists before he even knew what was happening.

"You can't just lock us up in here!" he protested loudly as the cell doors clanged shut. His captor only grunted a laugh, and vanished into the darkness just like the Superior had a few moments before.

As silence fell, Lea tried to catch his breath. His heart was pounding and his head was swimming. It couldn't have been more than a hour ago that he and Isa had been out in the sunshine of Radiant Garden, laughing and goofing off, and...free. Now they were chained up in a castle dungeon at the hands of a bunch of maniacs. What on earth had he gotten them into? How had this all gone so very wrong?

"Lea?" came Isa's voice, bouncing around the empty stone room. "Are you okay?"

"Isa!" Lea breathed. "Where are you?"

"I think I'm in the cell right next to you," Isa replied. Lea could hear chains rattling as his friend moved around.

"I don't know what to say." Lea shook his head, wishing he could wake up out of this nightmare. "I'm so sorry I got us into this mess." He was always the one who got them into messes, but none of them had ever been quite this bad. Never before had they gotten into a scrape that he couldn't also get them back out of, but this was starting to look like it might be the exception.

"Stop it," Isa ordered. "You can't blame yourself. I didn't have to agree to come, but I did."

Lea sighed. "Well, at least we know that some of the rumors are true," he said sarcastically. "There is definitely something strange going on in this castle."

"I'd say," Isa grunted. "And I'm pretty sure that 'Superior' was not Ansem the Wise."

"I don't know who that guy was," Lea answered with a shudder. "How is your face, by the way? That looked pretty nasty."

Before Isa could reply, they heard the echo of footsteps coming down the stairs. Lea tensed, not sure what to prepare himself for. Two hooded figures walked past his cell door without a glance inside, and he heard the key grate into the lock of Isa's cell. He may not have been able to guess their plans at that moment, but it was not going to take him long to find out.


	2. Part 2

It went on for days. Hours of endless torture, of screams echoing through the dungeon. Sometimes Lea found himself screaming, too, the tears pouring down his face unchecked. He wanted to clasp his hands to his ears, to try and block out the sound of his friend's agony, which tore through Lea like his heart was being ripped from his chest. But the chains on his arms were just short enough to prevent him from doing so. All he could do was sit and listen, and beg in vain for the men in the next room to stop.

What possibly made it even worse was that he had no idea what they were doing. In all their years of friendship, Lea had never even heard Isa raise his voice, much less scream in pain, so whatever they were doing had to be horrendous. He also didn't know why they only seemed interested in Isa. Every time he heard the footsteps on the stairs, his heart would race and his stomach would twist itself into a knot, with a mixture of dread and hope, waiting for the time that the cloaked men would stop at his door instead. But every time, they walked straight past him, and it would begin all over again.

After they left on the first day, Lea called out to his friend. "Isa!" he choked out. "Isa, can you hear me?" The room had gone so quiet that he feared Isa was dead.

"Lea..." It was more of a groan than anything, but it was enough.

"Oh, thank goodness," Lea sighed with relief. "Isa, I'm so...so sorry..." He trailed off, overcome with emotion.

"No..." came the barely audible reply. "This is...not your fault. Got it...memorized?"

At that Lea couldn't help but smile a little. He knew how his personal catchphrase tended to irritate Isa. "Yeah, I got it."

That was the last time that he heard Isa speak. From then on, whenever the tormentors would take a break, Lea would talk to Isa as much as he could, but he never got anything more than a moan or a grunt in return. Still, he kept up his one-sided conversation, trying his best to keep their minds on something other than their current situation. Mostly he reminisced about happier times together, about every prank and adventure and funny conversation that he could recall them having. Half of the time he didn't know if Isa could hear or cared, but every once in a while he would hear some kind of noise of approval or agreement that motivated him to continue. If he was honest, he needed the distraction just as much or more than Isa did, anyway, to keep him from going crazy in the dark silence.

"You gotta stay strong, okay?" Lea found himself urging after a particularly long day. "I know it's hard, and I bet you wanna just give up..." his voice caught in his throat, and he had to pause. "But you gotta hang in there. This can't go on forever. Sooner or later, somebody is gonna figure out that we're missing, and come looking for us." He hated how empty that sounded, even to his own ears. Neither of them really had any close family or friends anymore besides each other. Isa's mom, who raised him, had died the year before, and Lea's dad barely even noticed his existence most days. They had never really hung out with any other kids their age, other than Lea's girlfriends, and he had just broken up with his most recent one a few weeks ago. Besides, even if someone did eventually miss them, who would think to check the castle dungeon, or be strong enough to take on the men that lurked inside?

"Plus," he added, shaking those thoughts away, "One of these days they're going to give you a break and switch to me instead."

Isa groaned slightly, and it almost sounded like the word, "No."

"Yep, they will." He had begged and pleaded for them to do so, and even tried taunting them to make them angry at him as they walked past his cell, but to no avail. "Anytime now. And I don't wanna hear any protests from you when they do."

Just then, footsteps sounded on the stairs again. "Already?" Lea growled, clenching his teeth as anger and hatred washed over him. As the three men passed him with their usual disinterest, he lunged forward as far as his chains would allow and shouted, "Why can't you just leave him alone?"

The key slid into the lock once more, and turned with a clank. Lea hung his head in despair. "Hang in there, Isa!" he called out. "Just hang in there!"

Bracing himself for what was to follow, Lea was surprised to instead hear the men talking among themselves. "As I stated before, I believe he is ready," said one voice.

"Yes, you're right," answered a second voice, this one undoubtedly that of the Superior. "The time has indeed come to extract his heart."

Lea's stomach lurched. "What?" he exclaimed. "No! What are you...you can't do that!" Extract his heart? What did that even mean? Scrambling to his feet, he pulled against his chains as hard as he could, the iron cuffs cutting into his wrists mercilessly. "Isa!" he screamed. "Don't you touch him!"

There was a flash of light, a crackling sound like electricity, and a strange aura of both light and darkness filtered out into the open area of the dungeon. Lea watched, transfixed, not knowing exactly what was happening but feeling a growing ache in his chest. After several long, agonizing moments, everything faded away, and there was only the sound of the three men's voices murmuring for a few more seconds before they vanished into their "black holes", as Lea had come to call them.

The silence that fell was deafening. Lea swallowed hard and tried to find his voice. "Isa?" There was no answer. He tried again, louder this time. "Isa, can you hear me?" It was not the first time that he had not gotten an answer right away, he reminded himself. But he knew in his gut that this time was different. "Isa...please..." His legs buckled beneath him, and he crumpled to the ground, sobbing.

* * *

 **Part 3 coming soon!**


	3. Part 3

The days and nights that passed were all the same, silent and dark. Lea didn't know anymore whether he'd been there for days or weeks. There were no more footsteps on the stairs; no more noises anywhere. He was completely alone, and had no idea if or when that would change. The hooded men seemed to have forgotten that he existed, and he really wasn't sure whether that was a blessing or a curse.

One thing he did know, he had not eaten or slept, other than fitful dozing, since before the whole ordeal had begun, and he could fully feel the effects now that there was nothing else to focus on. He was too weak to do much other than lean against the wall and let his mind drift. When he did sleep, it was filled with terrible dreams. When he was awake, he found himself on more than one occasion imagining the demise of the Superior and his minions. The black shadow of rage and sorrow that had been creeping into his heart unnoticed for the first several days had taken a stronger hold now. Between that and the maddening silence of the dungeon, his mind was becoming a very dark place.

He missed Isa. There had not been very many days since they were just kids that the two of them had not been together. At school, they were always in the same class, though many a teacher had separated their desks in an attempt to keep them under control. In their free time, they were nearly always hanging out together, eating ice cream, sparring, and generally getting into mischief of one kind or another. Lea had always hated being alone. Until now, however, he had never realized how truly terrible loneliness could be.

Then suddenly, there they were again. The footsteps. Lea came quickly out of his half-conscious state, his heart speeding up. It was happening at last; they were coming for him. For a moment he wished selfishly that he could have Isa with him, to be at his side through whatever was coming. Then he shook his head, dismissing the thought. It was better this way. Isa had been through more than enough as it was, he didn't need to have had to support his friend, too. Whatever was about to happen, at least Lea knew that Isa wasn't suffering anymore.

For the first time, the footsteps stopped in front of Lea's door. He looked up, and nothing in the world could have prepared him for the familiar face that he saw there.

"Isa?" he gasped. "How...?" A thousand thoughts raced through his mind. This could not be possible. Yet there was his friend, alive and well, standing right in front of him. "You're okay!" he finally managed to exclaim, joy flooding through him.

"Isa is dead," the man looking through the bars stated coolly. "I am Saix."

Lea felt like his heart stopped beating. "What do you mean?" he stammered, completely confused. "You're Isa, you have to be..." For the first time, he noticed the changes to his friend's appearance. He was wearing a black coat that matched all the rest, and his once blue-green eyes now flashed gold. The cut between his eyes that he had gotten from Xaldin's lance had somehow become an x shaped scar. But the face, the stance, the long blue hair, the voice, the mannerisms, all belonged to Isa. What kind of cruel joke was this?

Swinging the door open, Saix walked inside and began to unlock the shackles from Lea's wrists. "The Superior has need of you," he stated, still stoic.

Lea felt all of the life that seeing Isa's face again had brought draining out of him. "Isa, no...please...you can't do this."

"Isa was weak and foolish," Saix replied, "And as I said before, he is dead. Now come." He pulled Lea to his feet, but Lea immediately collapsed back to the floor, unable to stand. Crossing his arms, Saix sighed, then reached down and grabbed Lea again, this time throwing his arm around his shoulders and lifting him around the waist. Then he began to half-drag, half-carry him out of the cell and through the dungeon towards the stairs. Lea felt very little inclination to help with this process, since he didn't think he was going to like how this trip ended, but stumbled along slightly just to keep from falling to the ground again.

"I don't get it," he panted. "How could you do this? How could you become one of them, after what they did to you? Are you really going to take me to them? This is me, Lea, your best friend, remember? You know what they're going to do to me, don't you? Do you really not care anymore?" His questions were met with silence. "Did they brainwash you? That must be it. They must have brainwashed you into thinking you're this other person, and that you're one of them."

"You never have known when to stop talking," Saix finally broke in.

"Aha!" Lea exclaimed with a glimmer of hope, trying his best to stop their march in its tracks. "You are Isa, I knew it!"

Shaking his head, Saix adjusted his grip and began hauling Lea up the stairs. "You never have listened, either. I may share Isa's memories, but I am not he."

Lea let this sink in for a moment, still bewildered. "You...share his memories?" They finally reached the top step and paused to catch their breath. "So then, even if you're somehow not him, you still remember me. You remember us, and all of the things we did together. We've been best friends since we were eight. We've always been there for each other, no matter what. You're gonna tell me that doesn't mean anything to you now?"

Saix turned and looked him straight in the eyes, never changing expression. "It means nothing to me."

The words hit Lea like a punch to the stomach. Dropping his head, he allowed himself to be pulled forward once more, and said nothing else for the remainder of the walk. The shadow settled back over him, even darker than before. He didn't even care about dying at this point, if that's what awaited him, he just hoped that it would be over with quickly.

When they entered the laboratory, all the black-coated men were there, just like on the first day. It seemed like ages ago that he had last stood here, side by side with Isa, and he had never really expected to do so again. He certainly had not ever thought that it would be Isa holding him captive the second time around. Lea looked around the room at the faces that haunted his dreams at night, seething with hatred, wishing he had the strength and the means to take them all down right then and there.

"He doesn't look quite so fiery today," the one-eyed man laughed. The two scientists glanced his way with only mild interest, then returned to their books.

"Yes, he is ready," the Superior spoke up, crossing towards Lea and Saix. For the first time, he had his hood down, and Lea found himself looking at a stern face with amber eyes and long, silver hair. He looked straight into those eyes, expecting to see evil there, but instead they just looked empty. Just like the others, he realized, and just like Isa's. "It is time to extract his heart," the Superior finished.

Despite what he had told himself earlier, that he didn't mind dying, Lea felt afraid. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, but at the same time happening way too fast. The others gathered around as if they were about to witness an exciting spectacle, and their voices sounded far away. Reaching out his hand, the Superior let loose a stream of electrifying light, which struck Lea's chest and gripped him, lifting him slightly off the ground. Waves of energy pulsed through his body as the same light and dark aura he had seen coming from Isa's cell began to envelope him.

He felt Saix leave his side and watched him join the rest of the onlookers. Lea could feel himself fading rapidly, but he couldn't help staring at the face of his friend, which was still completely void of emotion. No matter what Saix had insisted, Lea still fully believed that at least part of his friend was in there somewhere, which only made his betrayal worse. It stabbed at him deeply, much more painful than whatever was being done to him right now. As a final surge of power shot through him, a single tear slipped out of each of his eyes, lingering on his cheekbones until everything around him went dark.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it (in a heartbreaking kind of way). This piece is a bit darker than the stuff that I usually write, so I'd love to know your thoughts.

My other, ongoing fic can be found here: s/12878011/1/The-Chosen-Four .


End file.
